Chicago teen 17, killed in front of Church with assault weapon

Chicago Police said that the assault rifle used in a drive-by shooting of a teen on Sunday is not a weapon commonly seen among the innumerable number of crimes in the city.

Shell casings from a high-powered assault rifle used to kill an unidentified 17-year-old teenager on Sunday littered the area outside Holy Cross Catholic Church, ABC7 reported.

Investigators said gunfire erupted mere feet from the church’s entrance as a Spanish-speaking Mass had just concluded inside the Back of the Yards neighborhood house of worship.

Cops said a gunman in a vehicle drove up and opened fire on the victim as he walked past the church around 2 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s certainly unusual, This is not the typical weapon used in a lot of shootings,” said Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

Sharon Bolsega, a friend of the victim, told WLS-TV, “It’s in front of a church for God’s sake, I mean when does it stop? I mean, how do we get help with this? What do we do?”

Police cordoned off the crime scene and the dozens of shell casings marked by orange cones “suggests the level of violence we see on a daily basis,” said Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy.

This latest shooting is just one of the 300 gun-related murders that have occurred in Chicago this year and is expected to surpass last year’s total number of homicides

Scrutiny of automatic assault weapons has taken center stage this week in the wake of several mass shootings highlighted by last week’s terror attack in Orlando, Fla. which massacred 49 people at a gay nightclub.